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[w3526602]

Hi,

I'm guessing that this will affect quite a few of our readers (and their Landies) so hopefully will be ON topic. It's definitely going to affect my Landy ... when it arrives.

Presumably we all know that we may not park across a dropped kerb ... even if it's your own dropped kerb. (Google)

I've been doing some reading.and my flabber is ghasted.

We are not allowed to have more than one dropped kerb ... but that may only apply in Milton Keynes.    It wasn't so long ago, that Planners were demanding that you must be able to drive onto, and off of, your property in forward gear, with the plans showing your manouvering space, which you are not allowed to obstruct. Drives had to be three metres wide.

Now I see that you are not allowed to park within four metres of a dropped kerb

So, let's say you have a wider than normal semi .... call it 8 metres, plus another 3 metres for your drive.  Eleven metres?

You arrive home, park your car on the drive. Your mate comes to visit. There's no moreb room in the garden, so he parks across your frontage, all 8 metres of it. I'm discounting the 3 metres taken up by the drive.

He is not allowed to park within 4 metres of your dropped kerb, so he parks his 5 metre long gas guzzler minimum distance permitted from your  dropped kerb ... and intrudes a smidgen to the front of your neighbours "territory".

And then the neighbour comes home in his gas guzzer, finds his wife's car in the drive, plugged into the charging socket.

Me? I've got probably in excess of 100ft of kerb to call my own ... provided I don't want to claim parking rights.  Of course, I not allowed bto park to close to the corner.

Do we have any resident Planners? I can feel a crusade coming on.

602 (Resident of Milton Keynes, the car friendly town).

PS. Did anybody see the Welsh floods on TV news. That's where I used to live. I used to ponder on the "bottle necks" under the road bridges.

[Wittsend]

To be honest this is not something I'll lose a wink of sleep over 

1) There's no one to enforce what ever rules there may be.
No traffic wardens.
No Police on patrol.

2) Worried about parking outside your house - try the local schools at dropping off and pick-up times 
It's like the wild west out there. Locals can't get anything done about parents parking anywhere they like 
So no one is going to bother about parking outside your house, whether you're parked on the right side of the road - at night, or too close to a junction, on a yellow line or next to a fire hydrant etc.

3) Parking on pavements is a free for all 

So frankly - am I bothered

[w3526602]

Hi  Wittsend,

I agree ... but if I'm breaking the law, I like to be aware that I am (to prepare my cover story).

The Community Copper in Pontardawe  built up an excellent relationship with the residents ... then one night his Inspector told him to go out and book everybody who was parked without lights.

I once carried a bottle of kaolin-morph ... to show Plod if I was stopped

"Look Constable, can we discuss this at the next service station?" But holding a steady 100mph for most of the journey ... never saw a police car.

602

[oddjob]

I agree with Alan 
But if you want more laws to worry about apparently all goods vehicles over 2.5 tons should display parking lights overnight when parked on any road, street lit or not.
How heavy is a van sided 109?
 

[Dave M]

Here in Sefton, the Local Authority will only enforce a dropped crossing for an individual property if the householder complains. So this stops your driveway being blocked by others but allows you and your mates to park over it. Different for a dropped crossing for a commercial property, that would be enforced regardless of who parked there.

No idea about the 4m rule, seems unlikely?. Here, enforcement would only happen if the vehicles wheel was on the dropped crossing, or the taper from full height to dropped.

Dave

[Genem]

Scotland has already banned parking on pavements due to the impact on pedestrians, wheel-chair users etc. There is a 20 minute exemption for delivery vehicles. No idea what the regs are on dropped kerbs but as others have said, I suspect the local authorities have other enforcement issues higher up their priority list. I suspect that "hot-spots" and areas regularly complained about would get a visit..

Locally we have an issue with excessive numbers of visitors spilling out of the car-park at a well know scenic walk, Ben A'an, , parking on both sides of a narrow road such that its almost impossible to get down, especially for HGV and coaches.  The first step by the Council in consultation with the Police and National Park was to make it a 40mph zone, that allows the Council Enforcement people to ticket cars parked badly. (They are not allowed to work in 60mph stretches for their own safety.)  Next step will likely be to make it a "Clearway". Longer term, the Forestry are looking at expanding the car-park. Root cause ? "Visit Scotland" using the site in all their publicity, without checking the local infrastructure can cope... 

[Porkscratching]

Certainly round here if you can't park there's some signage telling you you can't or what times you can & can't etc..
Other than that I'd park wherever it was clear to do so and not worry about arcane technicalities !

[Grandadrob]

Alan has got it right. No Police, No traffic wardens, No PCSO, Its anarchy out there these days in our town. Oh yes...on the nearby estate, you just can't walk on the pavement because everyone parks their cars there don't they ?

[gvo416j R.I.P.]

apparently all goods vehicles over 2.5 tons should display parking lights overnight when parked on any road, street lit or not.

2.5 tonne ? or 3.5 tonne ?

I was under the impression that the smaller very light goods vehicles [ non-tachograph regulated]  did not have to comply with that rule.

Another few that a lot of people would fall foul of if they were ever enforced are the rules for trailers.

No trailer can be left on a road without being coupled to its towing vehicle [this includes any roadside land which could be considered "part of the public right of way" up to the "natural" boundary which is decided upon on individual cases if there is confusion]. There are exemptions for "emergency or roadworks trailers"

All vehicle trailer combinations regardless of gross weight must show lights after dusk when parked on any road.

The rules over the limits for "right of way" and "natural" boundaries also apply to parking where there are solid white centre lines on your side of a road. I , along with 40 to 50 others, fell foul of this on Fairfield Common near Buxton . We were attending a farm sale and the parking field was inaccessible due to the bad weather so a load of us parked off the road in the unfenced rough grass area between the road and the golf course. None of us were within 15 feet of the tarmac and some were as much as 30 feet away from the carriageway,  but we all got done after the police appeared due to a single numpty actually parked on the trunk road and blocked traffic on the A6.

I do not know if the rules nowadays are still the same but it was also points on the licence time as well - not actually a parking offence as such.

[oddjob]

2.5 apparently. All those Transit vans breaking the law every night!

As long as they follow the qualifying rules, these vehicles don’t need to leave on sidelights when parking at night on a road with a speed limit of under 30mph:

    cars
    goods vehicles (under 2500kg unladen weight)
    invalid carriages
    motorcycles
    pedal cycles

All other vehicles and trailers – and all vehicles with projecting loads – must not be left on a road at night without lights.

[w3526602]

Hi,

I think it was in the late 1950s that the law changed to allow parking at night without lights. Prior to that you had the option of flattening your battery, or hanging a paraffin powered "Tilly" (?) lantern from your door handle. I think that law changed (in the 1960s?) to allow cars (not goods) to park without lights (not on bus routes) against their nearside kerb (facing same way as traffic), on 30mph roads, within 25 yards of a street lamp, and at least 25 yards from a corner.

More recently, manufacturers devised a system, where you used the indicator switch to control which side of the car you wanted to "mark". Set the trafficator stalk to RIGHT, switch ignition OFF ... and your right hand side marker lamps would become parking lamps. Wonderful idea. But years later, somebody (the EU?) decreed that if one marker lamp was illuminated, the so must all the others.

Doh!

602

[gvo416j R.I.P.]

602

I think it was later than the 1950s.

Possibly it was then that the law was amended to allow "parking lights" as distinct from "side & running lights"?

As late as the 1960s [possibly just into the 1970s] you had to show at least one red light and one white light on the offside of the vehicle. Our 1963 stationwagon 109 came fitted with one of these parking lights from new. It was mounted on the offside hardtop side between the rear sliding windows and the 2nd row door, operated by a separate aux. switch in the dash panel. This vehicle was acquired by my father as a cancelled order, so whomever ordered it must have asked for that, and quite a few other bits which were on it on arrival.

A bit of a joke really regarding the amount of light they emitted as it was only a single 2 or 3 watt bulb but what the heck, it kept plod off your back.

Most manufacturers reacted faster than Rover and introduced electronics which allowed you to leave the indicator switch in the on position and a tail light and side light lit on the appropriate side when the keys were removed from the ignition. {presumably LHS was also active as it was a common part with LHD vehicles?}.Surprisingly this remained on some brands until only a few years ago. It was still no good though as, back in the day, most batteries could not cope with a 10 watt drain overnight.

[Worf]

I remember getting done around 1971 for parking with no lights in a 30 zone, under a street lamp. Apparently I was too close to a road junction, I think the law changed soon after that. Fined, but no points.

My A60 had this fitted from new.

[Porkscratching]

Lucky they don't still do that nonsense, I'd have a flat battery every day....

[Wittsend]

Back in the day we "borrowed" one of these ... from the nearest road works.



... and hung it from the driver's window 

By the early '70s these gave way to the flashing orange beacons 
and there were many after market accessories like these offerings from Brown Bros (circa 1971) (also Halfords did them) which clipped to the driver's window.



By then end of the '70s no one bothered about parking lights and these accessories "disappeared".